Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

Roux

    sight. He wasn‟t looking at Zane, and there was no ghost of a smile on
    his lips like there would have been if he‟d been up to something. Zane
    had seen that smile too many times to miss even a hint of it. He picked
    up his phone and saw the second text message. Same phone number.
    He‟d never gotten around to programming Ty‟s name into the contact
    list.
    He debated not even looking at the text; he wasn‟t sure he wanted
    to encourage Ty to distract him from work. Then, after a moment, Zane
    shook himself. There was no reason to be so seriously uptight about
    this. He activated the phone to read the message.
    The last 3 calls on my phone are for backup and pizza and sex. In
    that order. Cant decide what that says about me.
    Zane almost forgot to repress his smile. The night before Ty had
    called him to say he‟d ordered pizza and that Zane should pick it up on
    his way over. They had intended to watch some football in front of
    Ty‟s big-screen TV, but pointless playoff games not featuring any of
    Ty‟s favored teams weren‟t enough to hold Ty‟s attention for long.
    After the pizza was gone, they‟d wound up in front of the TV all right,
    doing something entirely different than watching it.
    Zane sniffed. He very purposefully did not shift in his chair as he
    set his phone down without answering or looking up at his partner.
    Maybe he‟d pick up dinner tonight too.
    His phone almost immediately lit up again. Zane hadn‟t even
    picked his pen back up. This time he glanced around the desks at their
    team members—none of them were paying him or Ty a bit of
    attention—before he poked at the phone to read the message.
    You realize I have free texting plan right?
    Obviously, ignoring Ty wasn‟t going to work. But Zane pushed
    away the phone, determined to do his level best. Simply because the
    struggle would amuse Ty, if he were being honest with himself. And
    keeping Ty amused was good for the rest of humanity.
    The phone lit up again, and when Zane‟s eyes cut to look at Ty,
    his partner was leaning back in his chair, feet blatantly propped on his
    desk as he held his phone in his hands.
    Divide & Conquer | 11

    Zane kept typing with one hand as he unobtrusively shifted his
    phone across the papers strewn in front of him so he could hit the
    button and read the message without drawing attention to it.
    Pop quiz partner. How many letters in the government alphabet?
    Biting his tongue, Zane tried to decide what the answer to that
    would be. It was fifty-fifty that it was a joke. He figured Ty was trying
    to break him now, to get him to react, maybe even to laugh. As he
    checked his peripheral vision, he could see Ty watching him, his head
    lowered just enough to make him look slightly predatory. Zane knew
    that look too well. Most people who didn‟t know Ty were intimidated
    by the glint in his hazel eyes and the slightly malicious curve to his full
    lips. But Zane had come to learn that Ty only wore that look when he
    was enjoying himself. And it made his clean-shaven, heart-shaped face
    that much more handsome, which irked Zane to no end. Irked and
    aroused.
    Just to egg him on, Zane ignored the message, went back to
    working on the reconciliation, and tried to build up the resolve it would
    take not to react to Ty‟s next attempt to break his cool.
    The phone lit up again, and this time Ty had returned his attention
    to his computer when Zane surreptitiously glanced at him. Zane
    wondered how the hell Ty typed so fast on the itty-bitty phone keypad.
    He would have liked to have seen it, if it wouldn‟t have spoiled their
    game.
    He made them both wait five minutes through a discussion of
    assets with Alston before he hit the key to open the latest text message.
    Answer: 19. ET went home on a UFO and the FBI went after him.
    Zane blinked several times at the screen as he kept a straight face,
    though by all rights, that one did deserve a laugh. Who‟d have known
    he‟d be tapping into years of undercover experience to hide that he was
    playing text games in the office? He tapped his pen thoughtfully on the
    ledger as he stared at it blankly. He was certainly distracted now. He
    suspected Ty knew it. But they‟d both continue to enjoy it if Zane tried
    not to admit it. He wouldn‟t have dreamed of goofing off like this at
    work a year ago. Hell, six months ago. But Ty Grady had done his
    damnedest to yank the stick out of Zane‟s ass….
    12 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    The